UPDATE ON THE SITUATION – The supply of long-range weapons to Kyiv would lead to an escalation, the Kremlin warns this Thursday as Western announcements mount.
Deliveries of Swedish long-range weapons to Ukraine, warnings from the Kremlin that Wagner had “things to learn” from Ukraine…
This Thursday, January 19, Le Figaro takes stock of the conflict in Ukraine.
Denmark donates 19 Caesar guns ordered in France to Ukraine
Ukraine will receive new Caesar 155mm self-propelled guns, made in France. This time it will be all 19 copies that Denmark has ordered in France and which have not all been delivered to Copenhagen. The parliament-backed executive “has decided to donate all 19 French-made Caesar artillery pieces to the army in Ukraine,” announced Defense Secretary Jakob Ellemann-Jensen in a statement. Since the beginning of the conflict, 18 Caesar guns from the stocks of the French army had already been delivered to Ukraine from Paris.
Also read Our visit to the very confidential Caesar factory, that French cannon that is tearing the world apart
600 Brimstone missiles sent from London
Britain will send 600 additional Brimstone missiles to Ukraine to help it deal with the Russian invasion, Britain’s defense secretary announced in Estonia on Thursday. “Today I can say that we will also send an additional 600 Brimstone missiles into the theater of operations, which will be incredibly important in helping Ukraine dominate the battlefield,” said Ben Wallace during a visit to the Tapa military base in Estonia.
Defense Secretary Ben Wallace during a news conference with Baltic defense ministers and NATO officials at Tapa military base in Estonia January 19, 2023. INTS KALNINS/ Portal
Archer guns and tanks delivered from Stockholm
After a government meeting, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson announced at a press conference “the first decision to start supplying Archer artillery systems to Ukraine” to help it against Russia.
Sweden, which has broken with Ukraine with its doctrine of not supplying arms to a country at war, will also send 50 CV-90 armored infantry fighters and NLAW man-portable anti-tank missiles, the government said. “Military support is crucial,” Prime Minister Kristersson said, because “it can change who takes the initiative next winter” on the front lines in Ukraine.
Also readFrançois d’Orcival: “In Ukraine, armored guns will weigh very heavily in the future”
The delivery of long-range weapons to Kyiv would lead to an escalation, the Kremlin says
The Kremlin warned on Thursday, January 19, that the West’s delivery to Ukraine of long-range weapons capable of striking Russian territory in depth would lead to a dangerous intensification of the armed conflict between Kyiv and Moscow .
“It is potentially very dangerous, it would mean that the conflict would reach a new level that would not bode well for European security,” said Russian Presidency spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
Zelenskyy urges “Stop shaking at Putin”
Ukraine on Thursday reiterated its demands for its Western allies to arm them with tanks and to “stop shaking” in front of Russian President Vladimir Putin, despite reluctance from some leaders who fear an escalation with Moscow.
“There are no taboos. From Washington to London, from Paris to Warsaw, the message is: Ukraine needs tanks; this is the key to ending the war,” Mykhaïlo Podoliak, adviser to the Ukrainian Presidency, tweeted. “It’s time to stop trembling at (Vladimir) Putin and take the final step,” he said.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky on a video-linked screen at the Congress Center during the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, January 18, 2023. FABRICE COFFRINI / AFP
Zelenskyy criticized Germany’s reluctance to allow heavy tank deliveries, saying it was not the “right strategy”.
Also read Olaf Scholz under pressure that Germany is supplying Leopard tanks to Kyiv
“There are times when one should not hesitate or compare oneself. If someone says, “I will deliver tanks if someone else does,” said the Ukrainian leader, speaking via videoconference during a breakfast on the sidelines of the Davos forum. The latter referred to press reports that Berlin would only deliver heavy tanks if the US delivered Abrams tanks.
Arms shipments “significantly increase”.
Ukraine on Thursday (19 January) called on its western allies to “significantly step up” their arms supplies to deal with the Russian army, specifically targeting 12 countries including Germany and Turkey – which is mediating in the conflict – which have Leopard tanks Kyiv tirelessly demands “one of the most urgent and urgent necessities” for the Ukrainian army.
“We appeal to all partner countries that have already provided or plan to provide military assistance and call on them to significantly increase their contribution,” Ukrainian Defense and Foreign Ministers Oleksiy Reznikov and Dmytro Kouleba said in a joint statement. “We call on all these countries and other countries with the appropriate capabilities to join the initiative to form an international armored coalition in support of Ukraine,” the two ministers demanded on Thursday.
Oleksiï Reznikov, Minister of Defense of Ukraine, December 28, 2022 Sergei SUPINSKY / AFP
The call comes on the eve of a key meeting of Ukraine’s Contact Group in Ramstein, Germany, to coordinate continued aid to Kyiv as the Russian military throws its forces into the Battle of Bakhmout (east). International military aid must therefore be “raised to a new level in terms of quality,” demanded Oleksiï Reznikov and Dmytro Kouleba.
At this stage, “Russia retains a significant quantitative advantage in troops, weapons and military equipment,” they lamented, despite already very significant financial and military aid from the West.
They also pledged to “guarantee” that Ukraine “will use these weapons responsibly and solely for the purpose of protecting Ukraine’s territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders.”
Oleksiï Reznikov and Dmytro Kouleba also “welcomed” the “bold and welcome decision of the UK” announced last Saturday to “deploy the first squadron of Challenger 2 tanks to Ukraine”. “However, this is not enough to achieve operational goals,” they plead in their joint statement. “The Kremlin is determined to intensify hostilities even more” and “has not changed its objectives towards Ukraine, which aims to destroy it,” they warned.
Wagner’s chef says he has “things to learn» the Ukrainian Army
At the same time, the head of the Wagner mercenary group, Evguéni Prigojine, hinted that in the midst of a bitter battle to capture Bakhmout in eastern Ukraine, his troops had “things to learn” from the Ukrainian army.
Ukrainian soldiers next to a badly damaged residential building during a Russian military strike, part of Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Bakhmut, Donetsk region, Ukraine January 17, 2023. STRINGER/ Portal
“The Ukrainian army works efficiently and consistently. We can learn from them. But in any case, the Wagner units are moving forward meter by meter,” he said in a statement released by his press service on Thursday. He assured that “the place Artiomovsk (name given by the Russian authorities to Bakhmout, editor’s note) will be taken”.
Criminal investigation into the Home Secretary’s helicopter crash
Ukrainian authorities continued criminal investigations ordered the day before by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy into the death of Interior Minister Denys Monastyrsky in the crash of his helicopter, which killed at least 14 people.
The site of the helicopter crash in the town of Brovary near Kyiv, Ukraine January 19, 2023. NACHO DOCE/ Portal
“The Security Service of Ukraine has opened a criminal investigation into this horrific incident,” the Ukrainian leader said in a speech on Wednesday evening. “I instructed the head of the Security Service of Ukraine to clarify all the circumstances of the disaster in cooperation with all other authorized bodies,” he said.
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